prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2006-03-21 07:13 am

poikilotherm

poikilotherm - n., an organism having a body temperature that varies with the environment; a coldblooded organism.


So no, not an oddball-thousand unit of measuring heat. Coined from Greek poikilos, variegated + therm, heat. A nice $20 word to describe a snake. (Okay, yeah, there's ectotherm, but I can never keep that and endotherm straight, and get exothermic mixed in to boot.)

---L.